Ball in general, life on the road… on this blog, either you do or you don't.

Sunday night tidbits: Franklin, McClellan, DeRosa, Glaus

Overcast but pleasant night at Busch Stadium tonight, and it should be a fun ballgame. Your faithful correspondent is wearing a garnet golf shirt tonight, and if you think that’s a coincidence, you don’t know me very well. Very, very nice win for the Seminoles last night.

But you’re here for baseball, so let’s get on with it. Not a very newsy afternoon, but there are a few things to pass on:

* Ryan Franklin is potentially available tonight, but they’d prefer not to use him.

TLR’s comment: “I think probably he should be [out], but he only threw eight or 10 pitches yesterday. I think there’s a chance, depending on how he warms up, that if it was absolutely necessary and perfect [then he could pitch]. Probably, with two days’ work, he should not pitch. But he really had a short outing.”

* Kyle McClellan sounds like he’s a touch less available than Franklin. He pitched two full (and difficult) innings on Friday, and TLR said at the time that he preferred to give McClellan two days after that.

“I just think we have other guys,” the skipper said when asked about McClellan. “Boggs, Motte, Hawksworth, they all need to pitch and it would be great to give McClellan two days. Now, again, winning this game is important. And if everything lines up and McClellan is the guy who should pitch, or Franklin [then they could pitch].”

* Mark DeRosa was bumped up to the No. 2 spot in the batting order. TLR said it was not to get DeRosa going, but rather to split up the left-handed hitters in the order. Still, it’s standard operating procedure for La Russa to move a slumping hitter UP in the lineup, rather than down — especially into the spot in front of Pujols.

* Troy Glaus remains unavailable and the optimism level sounds low. However, the plan is for Glaus to come on the upcoming road trip.

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